Headlines

16 A ★★★ Houston Chronicle Thursday, May 5 .1994

Associated Press

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, right, stands apart Andrei Kozyrev, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Ra-
Wednesday in Cairo as, from left, Israeli Foreign bin and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak try to
Minister Shimon Peres, Russian Foreign Minister persuade him to sign a self-government pact.

Mideast

Continued from Page 1A.

off the stage, but he returned five
minutes later, smiled broadly,
signed the maps and wrote a note on
them. Rabin had an aide translate
Arafat’s note and then added his
signature.

U.S. sources traveling with Chris¬
topher said Arafat wrote that he was
signing the maps but that the exact
borders still must be negotiated.

Several other important details
remain unresolved, including the
precise jurisdiction of the future
Palestinian judiciary and how many .
of an estimated 8,500 Palestinian
prisoners Israel will free.

Israel so far has agreed to release
5,000 of them but has resisted calls
for the release of 450 to 500 prisoners
from the Islamic fundamentalist
group Hamas. The first group was
released Wednesday.

Also unclear is the thorny issue of
who will control Jerusalem and what
will happen to Jewish settlements.

Peres offered a good-humored ex¬
planation of the ceremony’s confu¬
sion that brought laughter and
cheers from the audience:

“Nowadays, you can watch how
birth is being given on television.
Now you had have the occasion to
watch it. What really happened is
that we finished our negotiations by
2:30 in the morning (Wednesday) and
apparently we were short by five
minutes. We apologize for taking this
five minutes from you.

“We had had a dream before we
have had a map. Now we have a map
and a dream together ”

Rabin, in his speech after the
agreement was signed, said Wednes¬
day’s llth-hour glitch was a clear
example of the hard road ahead.

“The world witnessed the tip of the
iceberg of problems that we shall
have to overcome in the implemen¬
tation of even the first phase of the
declaration of principles to over¬
come 100 years of animosity, suspi¬
cion and bloodshed. It is not so
simple,” he said.

Arafat described the accord as a
“true beginning to complete the
march of peace and guarantee the
legitimate rights of the Palestinian
people.”

Christopher said the agreement
showed that “negotiations do work,

Comics

Continued from Page 1A.

smoking!!”

Sammy listed the offending char¬
acters, both heroes and villains: Nick
Fury, Blaze, Gambit, Kingpin and
Red Skull. Fury is smoking a cigar as
he takes aim with a high-tech hand¬
gun. Blaze, calmly firing a rifle from
his motorcycle, has a lit cigarette
dangling from his mouth.

The cards are sold nationally in
packs about the size of baseball
trading cards. They feature glossy,
full-color depictions of characters on
the front and their biographies on the
back.

Are the good guy and bad guy
smokers due to be replaced by more
current and politically correct char¬
acters? “No way,” said Marvel
spokeswoman Pamela Rutt. “The
characters are not going to go away.

“We just agreed from now on to
eliminate smoking materials from
the trading cards,” she said. “The
characters are not in a dramatic
context so there’s no reason to show
them smoking.”

Fury, a character who debuted in

peace is possible.”

Later, President Clinton congratu¬
lated both Rabin and Arafat in sepa¬
rate telephone calls. He urged them
to put the agreement into effect
quickly, a White House statement
said.

Mubarak, who hosted the signing
on his 60th birthday, welcomed “the
peace of heroes and brave men.”

“Caravans are on the move,” he
said. “It is now time to plant roses in
place of barbed wires and land
mines.”

But in Damascus, both Syria and
radical Palestinian groups blasted
the accord as a false peace and said
it would add new justification for all-
out war against Israel.

Abu Ahmed Esam, chief of foreign
relations affairs of the fundamental¬
ist Islamic Jihad organization, told

1963 in Sgt. Fury and his Howling
Commandos, and the more than 3,500
characters in the “Marvel Universe”
will continue to smoke in the comic

the Reuters news service that his
group would step up attacks on
Israel to foil the accord which pro¬
vides for limited Palestinian auton¬
omy and a partial Israeli troop
withdrawal from Gaza and Jericho.

The leader of the Marxist Popular
Front for the Liberation of Pales¬
tine, George Habash, said the agree¬
ment was aimed at “eliminating the
Palestinian cause and depriving Pal¬
estinians of their legitimate rights.”

Arafat’s reluctance to sign the
maps was not entirely unexpected.

In addition to the issue of the size
of Jericho and the configuration of
Gaza, remaining disputes include
Arafat’s title in the Palestinian ad¬
ministration and whether uniformed
Palestinian police will be stationed
at border crossings between Gaza
and Egypt and the West Bank and

books produced by the company, she
said, although only a small number
actually do.

“Marvel characters are known for

Jordan.

Sources close to the talks said it
was agreed that Arafat’s title in the
English version of the agreement
would be chairman. In the Arabic
text it will be referred to as rais, a
word which can mean either “presi¬
dent” — the title Palestinians prefer
— or “chairman.”

Israel reportedly has agreed to
increase the area around Jericho it is
willing to hand over in return for the
Palestinians not insisting on having
guards at West Bank and Gaza bor¬
ders.

No firm agreement has been
reached on the issues, and the two
sides will resume their negotiations
this week.

Peyman Pejman is a free-lance
journalist based in Cairo.

their elements of reality,” she said.
“They have shortcomings and fail¬
ings in addition to their more noble
characteristics.”

Bellaire Comics owner Andy San¬
chez said no one has complained
about comic characters smoking,
although parents sometimes com¬
plain about violence in the comic
books.

“I think Marvel made a trendy
choice. It’s the same as McDonald’s
and Jack-in-the-Box banning smok¬
ing,” he said. “They want to be
perceived as wholesome.”

Sanchez said he does not expect a
sudden run on the cards remaining
from the series issued last Novem¬
ber. “They still sell well, but most of
the kids have collected their sets
already,” he said. “I don’t think the
price or value will go up.”

Richard Evans of Bedrock City
Comic Co. at 6521 Westheimer said
the cards are all right as they are,
but perhaps Sammy Blum is tackling
the wrong villains.

“He’s taking on comic book com¬
panies instead of the tobacco compa¬
nies who are causing the problems,”
Evans said. “But it’s a wonderful
world we’re in when a kid can have
power like that over a big corpora¬
tion.”

Guns

Continued from Page 1A.

more of the American people sup¬
port a ban on military-style semi¬
automatic weapons, Congress is
wary of casting a gun control vote
and crossing the potent lobbying
arm of the NRA.

“The count shows we are between
five and 10 votes away in the House
with the momentum clearly on our
side,” said Rep. Charles Schumer, D-
N.Y., chief sponsor of the House bill.
“It’s going to be neck and neck. We
need every vote we can get. This is
going to be some horse race.”

Schumer said that for the first
time he now believes supporters of a
ban can win their uphill battle.

Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive
vice president, said supporters of the
ban were stalled at 15 to 20 votes shy
of the majority. “I think we’re going
to win,” LaPierre said.

Schumer’s effort was aided by
announcements from Andrews and
Coleman, both Democrats, that they
would vote for the measure. Both
had opposed a similar assault weap¬
ons ban in 1991 and Coleman earlier
this week issued a statement critical
of the current proposed ban.

LaPierre, however, said the NRA
has not counted either Andrews or
Coleman among their list of support¬
ers. “I don’t count them as switches,”
he said.

“I think it’s a reasonable and com¬
mon sense approach to help law
enforcement fight crime in Texas,”
Andrews said. He said Schumer’s
measure was much more tightly
crafted than the 1991 version, which
he claimed could have banned his
shotgun.

The measure specifically exempts
650 rifles and shotguns such as Brow¬
ning and Remington models. It also
would ban ammunition clips of more

Schools

Continued from Page 1A.

terrible bind between the demands
of work and helping their children
grow and learn,” Riley said of the
current system.

The commission noted that as jobs
of the 1990s demand more skills and
a higher level of education, students
are being asked to learn more in a
time frame that has barely budged in
a century.

In fact, the average time required
in American high schools for the
core subjects — English, math, sci¬
ence, history, geography, foreign
languages and the arts — has shrunk
to 41 percent of the day, the study
found. That time has decreased, as
nonacademic subjects, such as sex
education, instruction on AIDS, and
counseling on drug and alcohol
abuse, have been added.

One of the commission’s most dis¬
turbing findings was that Germany,
France, and Japan required at least
twice the number of hours in core
subjects as American high schools.
In Germany, the minimum high
school requirement in the main sub¬
jects is 3,528 hours, compared with
1,460 hours for American students.

“We need to explode the old time
metaphors, forget about the 50-min¬
ute class and the 180-day year,” said
Milton Goldberg, executive director
of the commission, created in 1991 by
Congress. Goldberg directed re¬
search for the landmark 1983 “Na¬
tion at Risk” report, which warned of
the “rising tide of mediocrity” in
American schools.

Just as that study set off a decade
of school restructuring, he said he is
hopeful that this report will spur

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Austin

Continued from Page 1A.

partnership or civil rights, I don’t
think the average person wants the
government to tell them who their
family is. That’s what it’s all about.”

To the conservatives who want the
policy repealed, the battle may be
more glorious than any victory. To
them, it represents the symbolic
awakening of a political force
thought to be dormant in the capital
city.

“The idea of a liberal Austin has
been a self-fulfilling prophecy for so
long it’s almost true,” said Michael
Brandes, the lawyer heading Con¬
cerned Texans, which got Proposi¬
tion 22 on the ballot. “A lot of people
didn’t think we could pull it off. But
we did.” / -

Brandes said his first clue about
the depth and breadth of conserva¬
tive concern over the city’s domestic
partners insurance plan came at an
early morning organizational meet¬
ing on Saturday, Oct. 30.

He expected 100 people to stop by
and pick up petition forms; 700 peo¬
ple showed up to help, he said.

That interest continues today. Al¬
though 21 other initiatives, three
contested City Council races and a
mayor’s race are on the ballot, it’s
Proposition 22 signs that are plas¬
tered on walls and stuck in lawns all
over town.

City election officials predict
70,000 voters will cast ballots Satur¬
day, based on the number of early
ballots in so far. Typical city elec¬
tions draw 60,000 voters.
j Unaware of the furor it would
"'cause, City Council, on a 5-2 vote
Sept. 2, approved a domestic part¬

ners insurance plan for city employ¬
ees after studying how it worked in
other cities, including San Antonio,
New York, Seattle and Laguna
Beach, Calif.

At the time, proponents said it
would save the city money in the
long run by averting indigent health
care needs at city-owned Bracken-
ridge Hospital.

More than 125 people showed up at
the council meeting that night to
speak out on the issue. Opponents of
the change threatened to take their
fight to voters, but few thought they
could pull it off.

But the seeds of discontent already
had been planted.

One of the companies cited by
program supporters in Austin was
Apple Computer, which had planned
to build a service center in neighbor¬
ing Williamson County.

Williamson County commission¬
ers, who had lured the company, its
1,700-employee payroll and its esti¬
mated $300 million economic im¬
pact, suddenly backed out of their
agreement to offer a $700,000 tax
break to Apple, threatening the en¬
tire deal.

The three commissioners opposing
the deal said Apple’s domestic part¬
ners insurance policy would bring an
immoral element — unmarried cou¬
ples of whatever sexual orientation
— to Austin’s conservative suburbs.

County commissioners, stung by
bad international publicity and the
loss of the money the service center
would bring, eventually gave in and
offered Apple economic incentives.

Shortly afterward, Concerned Tex¬
ans began its petition drive, which by
Feb. 28 had garnered 20,900 names,
nearly 5,000 more than needed.

Forces trying to revoke the insur¬
ance program say the tax money
spent on it could be spent elsewhere.

than 10 rounds. The law itself would
expire in 10 years. * ,

Coleman conceded his vote could
cost him his job.

“If taking Uzis out of the hands of
school kids and making it harder for
drug thugs to get the machine guns
that wantonly kill our police officers
and children is a political offense
that costs me my job, then so be it.”

He said he made up his mind after
talking to Clinton in the afternoon
and also talking to law enforcement
officers from his district.

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, pre¬
viously listed as undecided, said’he
was “leaning in favor of the ban” but
wants to be assured the bill does not
limit guns used for hunting or self¬
protection. Edwards voted for the
1991 assault weapons ban after 23
people were massacred at a cafete¬
ria in his district by a gunman. The
1991 version failed by 70 votes.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, may
vote against the bill after the House
Rules Committee rejected his ver¬
sion of a compromise that would
have deleted the definitions of as¬
sault weapons.

Green, the House’s leading recipi¬
ent of NRA campaign contributions
in 1992, told the Rules Committee he
was offering the compromise so he
could vote for the bill. Ban support¬
ers said his proposal would under¬
mine the Schumer bill.

Clinton, speaking to a housing
group from the Indian Treaty Rodin,
called on people and especially l^w
enforcement officers to contact
members of Congress.

“If every law enforcement official
who knows every member of Con¬
gress would call those people and
say, ‘This is not a partisan issue; this
is a question of law enforcement and
safety for Americans and sensible
policy,’ ” Clinton said. “We do under¬
stand the difference between being
shot at with a revolver and some¬
thing with 12 rounds, 15 rounds30
rounds or 60 rounds. We can count. 1 ”,

■ I— i i —

• rr

local school districts to re-examine
the length of class periods as we}l as
the school day and year.

The nine-member commission —
educators, business leaders and poli¬
ticians — declined to recommend
the ideal length of the school year,
and said local communities would
have to make that decision accord¬
ing to their needs.

The report recommended that SVfc
hours of every day should be devoted
to main academic subjects, instead
of the three hours now being spent.
Some schools in every community
should be open year round and at*,
night, and some students should be
given longer to learn than others,
who may not need it.

Already, in a growing number of
places, summer vacations are being
shortened and school days are
lengthening to mirror the workday.
In Murfreesboro, Tenn., thousands of
students attend schools open from 6
a.m to 6 p.m., an arrangement par¬
tially being paid for by working
parents. And, in Kansas City, Kan.,
the New Stanley Elementary School
operates 11 months of the year for a
total of 205 days, with the help of a
grant from a private foundation.

Also on Wednesday, President
Clinton signed school-to-work legis¬
lation aimed at preparing young
people for good jobs if they aren’t
college-bound, The Associated Press
reported. £ .

The new law is aimed specifically
at training the 75 percent of young
Americans who move from school to
the workplace without pursuing'! a
four-year college degree.

Under the legislation, the depart¬
ments of Education and Labor will
distribute $100 million this year Jto
help states, communities, schools,
employers and labor unions start
building a school-to-work network.

■ ,/ , j | I « ,

“The reality is there’s a huge num¬
ber of people against domestic part¬
ners insurance and (its supporters)
don’t have a defensible position in
light of the other critical needs in the
city of Austin,” Brandes said.

More important, Brandes said, the
policy represents a City Council
wandering into the deep end of a
societal problem way out of its
depth. J

“They’re attempting to define
what a family is,” he said. “That’s an
issue for the Legislature to take up,
not the City Council.”

Hugh Strange of the Austin Main¬
stream Coalition, a group fighting
passage of Proposition 22, says Bran¬
des’ financial arguments don’t add
up- m :

“They’re fighting to repeal some- *
thing that’s 0.01 percent of the cjty
budget,” Strange said. “If they were
concerned about taxes, this would.be
Proposition 13 (the controversial
California tax rollback initiative}.”

Domestic partners insurance, he
said, merely offers single employees
a fringe benefit that married em¬
ployees have. To repeal it now would
mean a pay cut for single employees.

But the bigger issue, he said, is
fear.

“These guys have a track record,”
Strange said. “Their track record is
they don’t like anybody that’s differ¬
ent from them.

“They don’t have communism (to
fight). Women are not buying their
anti-choice message. So what do they
have left? They have homosexuals.”

Even more important to Proposi¬
tion 22 supporters, Strange said, is
the desire to identify voters for
larger political gains. If conserva¬
tive Christian forces can win this
fight, they’ll have greater political
clout nationally.